Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Recommendation: Promote adoption and use of technical coding/terminology and lab data interchange standards.

•A collaborative of public and private organizations is needed to identify a “starter set” of LOINC® codes for the top 200–300 lab test codes in use across the country and to promote its broad adoption and use.
•A large-scale collaboration between ONC, the National Library of Medicine, and private sector organizations should strongly encourage the adoption and use of standards, such as LOINC® and the EHR-Lab Interoperability and Connectivity Specification (ELINCS), that align with standards supporting health IT and meaningful use.
•Medicare and commercial contracts should make incentives available to lab vendors to adopt and use LOINC®.